


Grade Locked

by LittleLinor



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Gleefully Embraced Cliches, M/M, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:08:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26047045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLinor/pseuds/LittleLinor
Summary: There's Only One Bed(Featuring miscommunications and assumptions, Ibuki's horrendous lifestyle, chat logs, Confused Doki Feelings, casually mentioned trauma, shinkansen schedules, and Shion and Tokoha being supremely unhelpful)
Relationships: Anjou Tokoha & Kiba Shion & Shindou Chrono, Ibuki Kouji/Shindou Chrono
Comments: 19
Kudos: 21





	Grade Locked

**Author's Note:**

> So people have been nagging at me for like forever to write a THERE'S ONLY ONE BED fic so there you go.  
> I can't believe the amount of research I actually put into this.
> 
> The only real warning here aside from references to Ibuki's abuse that are kind of undissociable from his character is for Shion being an insufferable rich kid.

It was five to ten on a cozy evening, made cozy only by Tokoha’s cup of hot chocolate and very thick, very fluffy blanket that kept her perfectly warm in bold defiance of the cold wind raging outside. Wrapped in their comfy goodness, the few snowflakes she saw helplessly swooshing by as the wind launched them past her window actually felt nice, cute, and seasonal, instead of instilling within her a sense of impending dread. Granted, her walls did shake a little every now and then, but that was nothing blasting Rummy Labyrinth at full volume couldn’t fix.  
It was, all in all, a very pleasant evening. School was out, the new year was just around the corner and—if the weather forecast was right—promised to be cold but not stormy, the paperwork nightmare that was temporarily transferring schools between countries with different academic calendars was almost finally sorted, and did she mention she had hot chocolate yet? It had marshmallows. Things were good.  
(Things were about to get even better.)  
When her phone vibrated, she expected it to be Kumi. Instead, she found a message in the Line chatroom she shared with Chrono and Shion.

**Chrono:** Someone please help me get this idiot to stop being stupid and share a bed with me. I’m at the end of my rope

Thankfully, she had already put down her cup, or she might have snorted hot chocolate all over her nice blanket.  
Still, there had been enough left at the back of her mouth that she almost choked on it, so she took the time to calm herself and swallow it properly while she stared at the screen in disbelief, long enough for Shion’s icon to pop up as he started typing.

**Shion:** You’re going to have to fill us in on the situation, Chrono. I wasn’t aware your relationship had progressed this far in a single day. Is Sapporo snow really that romantic?

She had to act before Shion got all the juicy interactions out of him. Pushing her shock aside, she grabbed her phone, typing away as Chrono’s icon started blinking desperately.

**Tokoha:** Aren’t you supposed to be on a plane right now?  
 **Chrono:** IT’S NOT LIKE THAT.  
 **Chrono:** And yes. I was. That’s the problem.  
 **Shion:** Please elaborate.  
 **Chrono:** Plane cancelled. Technical issues. All the remaining ones this evening are full, because of course they are, it’s new year. They got us a hotel room but guess what!!!!!

He didn’t need to finish the sentence. It was a good thing he wasn’t there to glare at her in person, because the laugh that rose from her stomach was gleeful, and it _just wouldn’t stop_.  
This was probably the most incredible thing she had ever heard, and one came across a lot of incredible things when one was friends with Chrono Shindou and Shion Kiba.  
… okay, mostly Shion. But at least Shion had yet to be kidnapped.

**Tokoha:** I hope you know this is every teenage girl’s dream, Chrono.  
 **Chrono:** What, being exhausted and stranded in Sapporo?  
 **Tokoha:** No, being “stuck” in a hotel room with their crush and a double bed.  
 **Chrono:** Somehow, him looking like cornered prey kind of dampens the aura of romance  
 **Shion:** Actually, it seems suspicious that they would assign you the same room. Are you sure he didn’t do it on purpose? Maybe he’s just having second thoughts now.  
 **Chrono:** I’m sure because I was there with him when they booked us. He didn’t know until they told us, and by then he was too frozen to argue with the airline staff, especially with all those people behind us  
 **Chrono:** I almost had to drag him to the actual hotel because just having to share a room was making him uncomfortable. And then we get there and it’s a double bed and he almost bolted  
 **Chrono:** … there may have been an argument  
 **Chrono:** … this is stupid  
 **Tokoha:** Wow.  
 **Chrono:** You know how he is when he gets all noble and self-sacrificial.  
 **Shion:** So what’s the situation? Are you both awkwardly sitting on opposite ends of the room or bed while you type this?  
 **Chrono:** No, he ran away  
 **Chrono:** By which I mean he’s taking a shower, but it’s been twenty minutes already and I’m starting to suspect he’s hoping I’ll just fall asleep so he can come back and sleep on the floor like he said  
 **Tokoha:** Oh so that’s what the argument was about  
 **Chrono:** Well yeah? What did you expect?  
 **Chrono:** On second thought, don’t answer that  
 **Tokoha:** Aw  
 **Chrono:** Man, if I’d know he was going to be that difficult, I’d have tried the train after all  
 **Tokoha:** Isn’t that like ten hours?  
 **Chrono:** Eight if you catch it right away… but even if I could book one, getting there on time would’ve been hell  
 **Chrono:** I swear, this is the last time I agree to a one day round trip for an event. It’s just not worth the stress  
 **Tokoha:** To be fair, those are some pretty extreme circumstances. But hey, at least you’re not alone, right? You’re safer with Ibuki around, even if he’s acting like a delicate maiden.  
 **Chrono:** That’s the thing, though. From what I gathered, we’re in the same room because he booked both our tickets in his name  
 **Tokoha:** loooooooooooooooooooooooooooool

Suddenly, Shion’s icon popped up again. She’d almost forgotten about him.  
He _had_ been quiet for quite some time. And for someone so in love with his own wit as Shion, that could only mean one thing.  
He was up to something.

_____

The evening had been rather good for Shion Kiba.  
Back when he had lived in his single room, the thin walls and badly insulated windows had been an issue, and one more reason he was out at night more often than not. In his own Neo-Victorian mansion of a home, though, weather was not an issue. The walls were thick, the heating on full power with no fear of cost, and the tea served steaming hot on silver trays before he could actually ask for it. Ah, the joys of being superficially predictable enough that people caught on to your habits and had things ready for you!  
Thus, the weather outside only registered enough for him to vaguely wonder if Tokyo would finally get more than a few snowflakes, before he was distracted by the shakespearean drama taking place in his group chat.

Really, for how proactive Chrono was, for all his (mostly undeserved, really) hothead reputation, the boy was woefully timorous in matters of love. It wasn’t that he was meek. You couldn’t possibly have put ‘Chrono’ and ‘meek’ in the same sentence, except maybe to explain the phenomenon of certain people seeming to grow the aforementioned quality when faced with his fiercest anger or his brightest smiles. But he was so… _responsible_. So aware of others and of consequences and of feelings—feelings that could get hurt, mind you, not the obvious feelings of people crushing on him. He was selectively blind on top of everything, which would have made it hilarious if you weren’t one of his two best friends and thus didn’t have to watch him responsibly blunder his way through the teenage love scene like a lifeguard cutting through a throng of laughing, floundering children in a shoulder-deep pool: as untouched and utterly out of place as he was efficient.  
No, Chrono was as unfitted to the game of love as he was good at loving itself, and that was how he was now in this situation, somewhat isolated with the person he held a fair amount of fascination and a ridiculous amount of fond, fierce, intimate protectiveness for, and apparently completely untouched by the idea of making the most of it.  
Unfortunately, Tokoha, who was usually so ready to meddle and matchmake when it came to her friends, was so busy enjoying the show that she failed to grasp the urgency of the situation.  
This was not a time for reflection and popcorn, no matter how popcorn-worthy the situation was. This was a time for _action_. Learning all the juicy details could come—and be savoured—later.  
As usual, he would have to take matters into his own hands.

**Shion:** Chrono.  
 **Chrono:** Yeah?  
 **Shion:** I hate to have to be the one to point out the incredibly obvious, but.  
 **Chrono:** Stop pausing for dramatic effect  
 **Shion:** Chrono. This is your chance.

And before Chrono could somehow express confusion, he elaborated.

**Shion:** This is your chance to actually move this relationship forward.  
 **Chrono:** No.

Well. He didn’t expect it to be that easy anyway. But he wasn’t the Kiba heir for nothing.  
If he could deal with Shouma, he could deal with Chrono’s hard skull and harder morals.

**Shion:** Chrono, think about it. When are you EVER going to make a move on him otherwise? In an event at Dragon Empire? With the Branch Chief watching on and crying his heart out?  
 **Chrono:** Why do you think of THIS and not of ‘in private’  
 **Shion:** Do you two actually meet up for anything that isn’t Vanguard?  
 **Chrono:** …  
 **Shion:** I rest my case.  
 **Chrono:** He has One Interest, okay? And you say that like I don’t meet up with YOU mostly for Vanguard related stuff  
 **Shion:** You message us about your love life.  
 **Chrono:** This ISN’T about my love life. I’m not making a move on him  
 **Shion:** Chrono. You love him.

Chrono’s icon lit up. Disappeared. Flickered again. Stayed gone for a full two minutes.

**Tokoha:** Wow, Shion, you went in for the kill.  
 **Shion:** I had no choice. You failed to help me talk some sense into him.  
 **Tokoha:** Sorry. I didn’t want to interrupt <3

Chrono’s icon lit up again, flickering on and off for a couple of minutes. In a unison that transcended geographical barriers, Shion and Tokoha held their breath.

**Chrono:** Okay, so I do. I love him. That’s PRECISELY why I’m not making a move on him when we’re both tired and frustrated and ESPECIALLY when he looks like Shinonome’s stalking him and whispering gross bullshit into his ear. He looked SCARED, Shion. I don’t know if it’s of me or of himself or of someone else, but I’m not just barging in on that when he’s like that because I can’t be bothered to wait for a better moment to throw my feelings at him  
 **Chrono:** And you KNOW if something happened, even if I was the one who pushed for it, he’d blame HIMSELF. He wants to take the floor because he thinks it’s HIS FAULT we ended up in this situation, he was rambling about it earlier when I tried to convince him there was no point. He acts like he’s somehow slighting me just by being in the same room, how do you think he’d react to THAT? If I even breathe the barest of hint that getting Personal was a concept that’s brushed my mind in any way at any point, he’ll probably run back all the way to the airport and find a bench to sleep on  
 **Chrono:** I want him in this bed because he’s stressed and exhausted and because I want him to get inside his skull that I’m comfortable around him and I know he wouldn’t hurt me. And I’d just take the floor myself in case HE’s the one who’s uncomfortable around others but you know him. You know he’d never let me do that. So what other choice do I have?  
 **Chrono:** I care about him. I don’t want him to get hurt. I don’t want him to blame himself for something that’s not his fault. And I want him to get some SLEEP, and not on the stupid floor. 

His icon flickered again, then disappeared, as if he’d thought the better of it. Shion released a breath, and found himself light-headed. Somehow, he’d held it even tighter while Chrono poured his heart out.  
In the end, it was Tokoha who broke the chat silence.

**Tokoha:** How are you so… so…

She followed it with a large crying animated emote.

**Chrono:** ?  
 **Tokoha:** You’re too good, Chrono. Okay, sorry, we went a little overboard maybe. But I agree you SHOULD get him in there. It’ll be good for him and it’ll be progress at the same time, you know?

Feeling a little guilty for letting her take the lead, Shion joined in.

**Shion:** I agree. 

Okay, so maybe he hadn’t gotten Chrono to throw caution to the wind. But maybe a lifeguard was precisely what people needed, sometimes. From what little he could glimpse of Ibuki under his cold exterior, the man definitely needed it.  
And whatever you might say about him, Chrono was very, _very_ good at being a lifeguard.

**Chrono:** … thanks. Sorry, I’m tired too I think  
 **Shion:** Don’t worry about it. Now, let’s focus on getting your reluctant roommate to sleep.  
 **Chrono:** If you have any bright ideas, please tell me, because I’m starting to collapse here and I’m not anywhere closer to a solution  
 **Chrono:** … fuck. How long has he been gone now? I should go look for him

_____

The evening had not been good to Chrono Shindou.  
Honestly, the entire _day_ had not been good to Chrono Shindou. He’d gotten up at four am so he could be at the airport at half past five, in the actual plane at half past six, and in Sapporo at eight, and _then_ it had been a rush of getting to the actual venue, helping the local branch handle some last minute issues, and then the event itself. When it was finally over and the local staff asked him to actually sit down and enjoy a drink to make up for having helped out upon arrival, he didn’t even get time to properly enjoy said drink before he and Ibuki had to rush back to the airport, only to find their plane cancelled while they were already at their boarding gate.  
And now he was sitting on the edge of this stupid, stupid bed of discord in his hotel-issued pyjamas, and starting to guiltily fantasise about summoning Chronoethos to cleave the damn thing in two and solve his problem.  
(It would not solve his problem, but at this point it might actually make him feel better. Unfortunately, Chrono was not someone who did counterproductive things to make himself feel better.)

Well. There was at least one thing to be said for his chat-mediated argument. He might be feeling even more drained now, but at least the exhausted irritation that had caused him to blow up at Ibuki earlier had drained out of him along with the rest. Where he had been feeling annoyed before, he only felt tired. And worried.  
And, distantly, nostalgic for the night that could have been, in a parallel universe where they hadn’t been stupid enough to try to do the whole trip in one day, a night in an actual booked hotel, of hanging out together in the intimacy of the advancing hour, until one or both of them was too tired to go on, of saying goodnight to each other before retiring to their rooms, of waking up and having breakfast together. It ate at him like a gnawing pang of loss, whenever he let himself think about it, and so he stopped himself from thinking about it.  
He was having uneven success. Exhaustion made it hard to focus on things, or on not thinking about things.  
But right now, his priority was locating Ibuki. Apologising, maybe. Hoping the truce would be enough that exhaustion would make a powerful argument and send him to bed.  
He was about to stand when his phone vibrated again.

**Tokoha:** Listen, I have an idea.  
 **Chrono:** I’m all ears  
 **Tokoha:** You gave the solution to your own problem earlier. You haven’t used your greatest weapon yet.  
 **Chrono:** Huh?  
 **Shion:** Oh, I see.  
 **Chrono:** Well I don’t  
 **Tokoha:** He cares about you way too much to let you sleep on the floor. So, tell him you’ll do that too unless he sleeps on the bed too!  
 **Chrono:** … I don’t know about this  
 **Tokoha:** Desperate times call for desperate measures!  
 **Chrono:** Maybe. But li

Footsteps sounded just outside the door. He froze, then jumped a little as the handle was tested, accidentally sending his interrupted message.

**Chrono:** Shit  
 **Chrono:** brb

It didn’t take Ibuki more than ten seconds to find his key and get back into the room, clutching his showering supplies to his chest. He looked up and blinked when he saw Chrono, his face going from exhausted right back to deer in the headlights again as Chrono stood and turned to face him.  
Any irritation Chrono might still have held melted on the spot.

Could he really do this? Sure, maybe it could work, but would it be worth it? On the other hand, did he have much of a choice, when they were both in this state?  
Maybe he could try, and… and see how things went, and improvise on the spot depending on his reaction. Yeah. Yeah that totally was a good plan.  
“Look,” he said, putting his hands on his hips and looking at Ibuki defiantly, “if you insist on sleeping on the floor, then so will I.” And then, because Ibuki’s eyes went from shock to almost panic and betrayed, he immediately mellowed, and went on: “… and that would be stupid. Look. Why don’t we stop this contest of who has to be the most noble and uncomfortable. Talk to me, okay? Is there a reason you don’t want to sleep with me other than blaming yourself or thinking it’s not proper or whatever? If you’re uncomfortable—”  
Ibuki shook his head, looking defeated, and Chrono shut up.   
More than anything, he wanted to understand. Maybe he didn’t want to make a move on a tired and unsuspecting man, but he was still hoping to make some progress _someday_ , and he couldn’t do that if he didn’t learn to know him better, if Ibuki didn’t trust him with those sides of him. And more than anything… more than anything, he cared. He _cared_ about Ibuki, whatever his other feelings might be.  
“… there’s no need…” Ibuki started saying, quietly, but Chrono slowly crossed the room and reached for one of his hands.  
It was brazenly intimate, and he silently prayed that his boldness hadn’t crossed the line and made Ibuki shut him out. But the quiet, the late hour, and the slight, strange tension that always seemed to run between them when they had to team up for anything shaped the room, the moment into a world of its own, and to his relief (and slight shock), Ibuki didn’t pull back. He let Chrono hold his hand, and although he didn’t squeeze, he held it back.  
“… I just want you to get some proper rest,” Chrono said. “Did you even sleep last night?”  
Ibuki’s eyes darted guiltily away. Ah. He should have known.  
“… I was finishing some work, and then it was already three,” Ibuki muttered.  
“Yeah, that’s kind of what I expected. Look, you know what we can do? I get _in_ the bed, you get an extra blanket and sleep on top. That way it’s still separate spaces but you can have a proper mattress. And no risk of rolling into each other.” He smiled, a little bittersweet. “I don’t really move around anyway. Old orphanage habit.”  
“… I do,” Ibuki sighed.  
“Well I’ll be dead to the world, so I won’t feel it anyway.” He squeezed Ibuki’s hand a little. “… c’mon, please?”  
Ibuki hesitated.  
“… would you really sleep on the floor if I don’t?”  
“… I mean at this point I’d feel bad sleeping alone on the bed but I’d _also_ feel bad about sleeping on the floor because it’d feel like blackmailing you, so I think I kinda backed myself into a corner here.”  
To his surprise, Ibuki let out a breath that almost sounded like a laugh.  
“… fine. You win. Now please rest too, I don’t want your aunt to wonder why you look like you’ve been kept up all night.”  
Chrono grinned, and determinedly ignored the snickering voices he could hear at the back of his mind.  
(They sounded suspiciously like Shion and Tokoha)

**Chrono:** Success  
 **Shion:** Considering it has only been fifteen minutes, I assume you don’t mean success in the way I had envisioned it.

Chrono rolled his eyes, smiling. He was curled up on his side of the bed, facing _towards_ Ibuki so his phone screen could face _away_ from him, and would probably felt much more awkard and nervous about the situation if he hadn’t been so exhausted.  
But Ibuki was there, wrapped in another blanket to his left, and although Chrono could still see tension in his back, it was starting to fade, slowly.  
Good.

**Chrono:** Of course not, who d’you take me for?  
 **Tokoha:** So my idea worked?  
 **Chrono:** Yes and no  
 **Chrono:** I had to improvise. But whatever, he’s in bed now  
 **Chrono:** So I came to say goodnight. So you don’t think I disappeared or something  
 **Chrono:** … or anything else

An emote of Ahsha dancing filled half of his screen.

**Shion:** Congratulations.  
 **Chrono:** So yeah goodnight  
 **Chrono:** … and if you talk about this to ANYONE I’m ending this friendship.  
 **Chrono:** Not even Kumi  
 **Chrono:** … and especially not Tsuneto. Or Kamui.  
 **Shion:** Be at ease. None of us want Kamui to have a heart attack.  
 **Tokoha:** Sleep well!  
 **Chrono:** … night, guys  
 **Chrono:** … and thanks for the help  
 **Tokoha:** You’re welcome <3  
 **Shion:** It was my pleasure.

He put the phone down, and let his eyes adjust to the darkness, until he could once more make out the room in the faint light that leaked past the sides of their curtains. Outside, the airport went on with its life, never sleeping, and cast shifting glows on the walls, but after all the day’s emotions, he felt sleep gradually settle on him.

It was only when he heard light almost-snores from the outside of the bed that he realised that Ibuki had in fact fully relaxed and fallen asleep. Smiling, he resisted the urge to rub his back and instead let himself sink, feeling strangely satisfied.

_____

The night had been surprisingly good to Kouji Ibuki.  
He couldn’t remember a time when he hadn’t had frequent nightmares, but he could very precisely place the moment in time where he had gone from ‘bothered’ to ‘plagued’, and in his everyday life, he made a point to think about it as little as possible. It just didn’t do to dwell too much on it, not least because when he did, he could feel the parts of him that had allowed that all too real nightmare to happen in the first place. They had never quite left him, no matter how much he’d told himself he’d grown.  
But when he awoke that morning, despite the unfamiliar bed and the slight soreness of his muscles that always belatedly reprimanded him when he skipped a night’s sleep, he felt _rested_ , in a way that he hadn’t for a long, long time.  
He felt warm, and he felt quiet, like the incessant whispers and contradicting thoughts in his head had finally gone silent, and he wanted nothing more than to stay wrapped in said warmth and just go back to sleep.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t. He had to get up and check his phone and schedule and—  
He froze as his mind took the plunge from knowing he had been stranded for the night in this hotel room with Chrono to _realising he had been stranded for the night in this hotel room with Chrono_. If the situation had finally felt less daunting to his exhausted mind a few hours ago, now it was back to fully daunting, and he felt an edge of familiar panic creep up his body.  
He forced himself to calm down. There was nothing inherently scary about being in bed with Chrono Shindou; it was the suddenness of the situation that had shaken him so much. He’d never thought of something like this, never prepared for it, and once thrown into it, the thousands of sometimes relevant, sometimes inane considerations that he would normally have sorted through before the fact hit him all at once, and on top of that an edge of guilt when he’d immediately found himself thinking, feeling, _at least it’s with Chrono_.  
He was relying too much on Chrono. Not on his heroism, like he had during the underground war they had waged against Myoujin, but on his kindness. On how easy it was to be around him. On how freely he could talk, without worrying too much about his words would be taken, because Chrono somehow knew to take his words at face value and not ask for more for the sake of asking more. On how natural it felt, to exist at his side.  
On how safe he felt around him.  
Chrono had always, in his own strange way, felt safe, even when he was challenging him, confronting him, refuting his expectations and ideas. It had been strange, to realise, acknowledge that, to finally have a point of reference, a foil against which to look at his previous experiences, at the people who had offered only validation and support and enabling and yet had, in retrospect, only made him feel more alone, more angry, more _scared_.   
Chrono felt safe, and he was _weak_ , and relied on him entirely too much, and it had all hit him when he was told they’d be sharing a room and his first reaction had been _relief_ , and his mind hadn’t stopped plaguing him with all the ways in which he didn’t deserve him and should make up for the inconvenience of being around him and even ridiculous thoughts about preserving Chrono’s reputation until Chrono himself had put an end to it, in his own way, with kindness and firmness and the kind of openness that left Kouji simultaneously grateful, envious and ashamed, and had brought him to bed.  
… to bed.

His eyes shot open. He sat up in a hurry, looking around himself and causing a slight groan to come from behind him. Heart hammering, he looked down at Chrono, noted with relief that he hadn’t actually woken up, then took in where on the bed he was and exactly how close they were and almost found himself plunging into the abyss of overthinking he’d been drowning in just a few hours before.  
Chrono, true to his word, hadn’t moved an inch from the position he’d gone to bed in last Kouji remembered, slightly curled on his side with his back to the wall, his phone peeking from under his pillow. But _he_ had somehow backed almost into him across the width of the bed until Chrono was almost flush against his back.  
They hadn’t been touching, but considering there were two layers of blankets separating them anyway and he was laying on top of one of those layers, he really doubted he could take much of the credit for that.  
He’d been so scared of waking him up with his nightmare-induced thrashing, but instead the reality was honestly worse.  
(He silenced the part of him that tried to suggest, although it didn’t have a better submission, that ‘worse’ might not actually be the appropriate word.)  
Was that what had felt so warm? He hadn’t felt this relaxed in ages, but this _really_ didn’t help with the thoughts that had been plaguing him. But thankfully, Chrono hadn’t woken up yet, and thus _never had to know_ , and so Kouji did the most Kouji-like thing he could have done in that moment.  
He ran away.

(To his credit, the breakfast buffet was a steep improvement from literally leaving the continent.)

He had left just on time. A mere twenty minutes later, Chrono had made his way to breakfast too, radiating morning cheer that Kouji knew for a fact Chrono didn’t normally have in the morning and the kind of confidence that he’d come to associate with him exclusively.   
Unfortunately for him, he’d omitted to help himself to anything more than the coffee he’d been nursing for the last twenty minutes, and thus the first thing Chrono did when he arrived within range of his table and took in its state of emptiness was raise him a judging eyebrow.  
“… I was waiting for you,” Kouji said. It wasn’t really a lie. Technically.  
… technically.  
… he decided to not push his luck any further or say anything else that he might regret and relive at night for years, and stood up to gather some food that wouldn’t make him sick from the buffet.

When he finally came back to the table, having settled for toast and butter, Chrono was already sipping at some soup, while a small bowl of rice, one of salad, and a plate of scrambled eggs waited for their turn. He’d gotten himself a cup of coffee too, although it was noticeably smaller than Kouji’s own.  
“Good morning,” Chrono said, grinning. “Slept well?”  
Somehow, Kouji felt too defeated to try and pretend.  
“… yes. Thank you.”  
“Did they confirm the plane?”  
Well, at least that was a topic he could easily elaborate on.  
“They did. They emailed me earlier this morning. We check in in two hours.”  
“Oh good.”  
“You can notify your aunt.”  
“… I dunno, maybe I’ll do that once we’re in the actual plane. Just to be sure.”  
Kouji smiled, the _feeling_ of a laugh bubbling in his chest but not reaching his throat or face, and Chrono grinned at him again.  
It silenced the laugh, but not the uncomfortable beating of his heart.  
“Well,” Chrono said, “since we have all this time, want to check in early and go shopping for souvenirs? We wouldn’t have had time yesterday, but I’d feel bad if I didn’t bring back anything…”  
Something warm was growing in his stomach, and he didn’t know what to call it or how to feel about it, but the urge he always had to _follow_ when Chrono was around and full of intent was wrapping around him again, and he found he didn’t actually have any desire to fight it.  
“… I’d be happy to.”

**Author's Note:**

> “So how was your trip?” Mikuru asked as they finally drove away from the airport and towards home.  
> Chrono turned off his phone, leaving _**Tokoha:** So, does he snore?_ on read for the foreseeable future, and smiled.  
> “It was good.”


End file.
